This book covers research design and methodology from a unique and engaging point of view, based on accounts from influential researchers across the field of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Most books and articles about research in criminology and criminal justice focus on how the research was carried out: the data that were used, the methods that were applied, the results that were achieved. While these are all important, they do not present a complete picture. Envisioning Criminology: Researchers on Research as a Process of Discovery aims to fill that gap by providing nuance--the “back story” of why researchers selected particular problems, how they approached those problems, and how their background, training, and experience affected the approaches they took. As the contributions in this book demonstrate, research is not a cut-and-dried process, as all too many methods books imply, but a living, breathing–and in some ways quirky–process that is influenced by non-“scientific” factors. The path taken by a researcher is important, and an appreciation of his or her background, experience, knowledge–and the setbacks and triumphs of performing the research–provides a much more complete picture of how research is done. The twenty-eight chapters in this book describe the back stories of their authors, which serve to enlighten readers about the interplay between the personal and the methodological. While primarily aimed as a textbook, this work will also be of interest to researchers in Criminology and Criminal Justice, and related Social and Behavioral Science fields as an account of how seminal researchers in the field developed their key contributions.

Envisioning Legality: Law, Culture and Representation is a path-breaking collection of some of the world’s leading cultural legal scholars addressing issues of law, representation and the image. Law is constituted in and through the representations that hold us in their thrall, and this book focuses on the ways in which cultural legal representations not only reflect or contribute to an understanding of law, but constitute the very fabric of legality itself. As such, each of these ‘readings’ of cultural texts takes seriously the cultural as a mode of envisioning, constituting and critiquing the law. And the theoretically sophisticated approaches utilised here encompass more than simply an engagement with ‘harmless entertainment’. Rather they enact and undertake specific political and critical engagements with timely issues, such as: the redressing of past wrongs; recognising and combatting structural injustices; and orienting our political communities in relation to uncertain futures. Envisioning Legality thereby presents a cultural legal studies that provides the means for engaging in robust, sustained and in-depth encounters with the nature and role of law in a global, mediated world.

This innovative book examines the use of ethnography and fieldwork in Criminology and Criminal Justice Research. Using a combination of case studies, as well as “behind the scenes” contributions, it provides an comprehensive look at both the insights gained from ethnographic research, as well as the choices researchers make in conducting that work. The research is divided into three main sections, covering ethnographies of subcultures, ethnographies of place, and ethnographies of policing. It includes a diverse group of international contributors to provide perspectives on researchers’ selection of questions to study, and their decisions about using ethnography to study those questions. This work will be of interest to researchers in criminology and criminal justice, particularly with a qualitative perspective, as well as related fields such as sociology, anthropology, and demography. It will also be of interest to students studying research methods and design.

Advancing Critical Criminology constitutes a timely addition to the growing body of knowledge on critical criminology scholarship. DeKeseredy and Perry have assembled a volume that provides scholars with an in-depth review of the extant literature on several major branches of criminology as well as examples of how critical criminologists apply their theoretical perspectives to substantive topics, such as drugs, interpersonal violence, and rural crime. Accordingly, this work is divided into two main sections: overviews of theories and applications. Each chapter provides a summary of work in a specific area, along with suggestions for moving the field forward. This reader is unique in its choice of topics, which have often been overlooked in the past. An expert collection of international scholars, Advancing Critical Criminology is certain to stimulate lively debates and generate further critical social scientific work in this field.

This book provides the first systematic overview of the theoretical, empirical, clinical, and police issues related to sexual murderers and murder. Bringing together leading researchers, theoreticians, and practitioners from across eight different countries, this is a truly international collaboration and an essential reference text for students, researchers, and professionals interested in sexual homicide, as well as an exhaustive source of guidelines for the assessment and treatment of sexual murderers. This book is divided into five parts: Part I, Theories and research, presents a detailed review of theoretical models and empirical studies of sexual homicide. Part II, Sexual sadism, discusses theoretical, empirical, and clinical considerations and reviews the literature on the characteristics of sadistic sexual aggressors. Part III, Clinical issues, discusses the assessment and management of sexual murderers at each phase of the judicial process: at trial, during incarceration, and during follow-up in the community. Part IV, Policing issues, discusses research and practical issues related to police activities surrounding a sexual murder. Topics include investigation, offender and geographical profiling, behavioural linkage, and police interrogation of the murderers. Part V, New directions, presents new directions for the study of sexual homicide and discusses the limits of current knowledge related to sexual murderers and their crimes. Offering a broad and comprehensive approach, this Handbook is an indispensable source of information on theory, research, clinical assessment, treatment, and police issues related to sexual murderers and murder.

This groundbreaking edited volume evaluates prisoner reentry using a critical approach to demonstrate how the many issues surrounding reentry do not merely intersect but are in fact reinforcing and interdependent. The number of former incarcerated persons with a felony conviction living in the United States has grown significantly in the last decade, reaching into the millions. When men and women are released from prison, their journey encompasses a range of challenges that are unique to each individual, including physical and mental illnesses, substance abuse, gender identity, complicated family dynamics, the denial of rights, and the inability to voice their experiences about returning home. Although scholars focus on the obstacles former prisoners encounter and how to reduce recidivism rates, the main challenge of prisoner reentry is how multiple interdependent issues overlap in complex ways. By examining prisoner reentry from various critical perspectives, this volume depicts how the carceral continuum, from incarceration to reentry, negatively impacts individuals, families, and communities; how the criminal justice system extends different forms of social control that break social networks; and how the shifting nature of prisoner reentry has created new and complicated obstacles to those affected by the criminal justice system. This volume explores these realities with respect to a range of social, community, political, and policy issues that former incarcerated persons must navigate to successfully reenter society. A springboard for future critical research and policy discussions, this book will be of interest to U.S. and international researchers and practitioners interested in the topic of prisoner reentry, as well as graduate and upper-level undergraduate students concerned with contemporary issues in corrections, community-based corrections, critical issues in criminal justice, criminal justice policies, and reentry.

"The Oxford Handbook of Gangs and Society is the premier reference book on gangs for practitioners, policymakers, students, and scholars. This carefully curated volume contains 43 chapters written by the leading experts in the field, who advance a central theme of "looking back, moving forward" by providing state-of-the-art reviews of the literature they created, shaped, and (re)defined. This international, interdisciplinary collective of authors provides readers with a rare tour of the field in its entirety, expertly navigating thorny debates and the at-times contentious history of gang research, while simultaneously synthesizing flourishing areas of study that advance the field into the 21st century. The volume is divided into six cohesive sections that reflect the diverse field of gang studies and capture the large-scale cultural, economic, political, and social changes occurring within the world of gangs in the last century; anticipating immense changes on the horizon. From definitions to history to theory to epistemology to technology to policy and practice, this unprecedented volume captures the most timely and important topics in the field. When readers finish this book, they will be more confident in what we know and do not know about gangs in our society"--

This book is the first to organize and explain current scholarship on convict criminology, corrections and criminal justice in an accessible manner. From activism to the emergence of undergraduate programmes in prisons, it provides a clear guide to the complexities of the field.

Abolish Criminology presents critical scholarship on criminology and criminal justice ideologies and practices, alongside emerging freedom-driven visions and practices for new world formations. The book introduces readers to a detailed history and analysis of crime as a concept and its colonizing trajectories into existence and enforcement. These significant contexts buried within peculiar academic histories and classroom practices are often overlooked or unknown outside academic and public discussions, causing the impact of racializing-gendering-sexualizing histories to extend and grow through criminology’s creation of crime, extending how the concept is weaponized and enforced through the criminal legal system. It offers written, visual, and poetic teachings from the perspectives of students, professors, imprisoned and formerly imprisoned persons, and artists. This allows readers to engage in multi-sensory, inter-disciplinary, and multi-perspective teachings on criminology’s often discussed but seldom interrogated mythologies on violence and danger, and their wide-reaching enforcements through the criminal legal system’s research, theories, agencies, and dominant cultures. Abolish Criminology serves the needs of undergraduate and graduate students and educators in the social sciences, arts, and humanities. It will also appeal to scholars, researchers, policy makers, activists, community organizers, social movement builders, and various reading groups in the general public who are grappling with increased critical public discourse on policing and criminal legal reform or abolition.

This book examines the contemporary rise in community violence across the United States and globally from sociological and criminological perspectives. It comprehensively investigates police response to criminal incidents, engagements with criminal suspects, use of force by law enforcement, and crime control measures implemented or recommended to initiate effective crime control measures so that the unwanted rise of violence and serious crime can again be contained. The primary audience for the book will be upper level undergraduate and graduate level students, criminal justice and law enforcement practitioners, government policy makers, community advocates, and researchers in sociology, criminology, homeland security, criminal justice, public administration, and political science.